under 35's quilt competition {zoe}

I have entered this competition twice before; in 2012 and then in 2014 (the post about my quilt can be found here).

The most current (now two years ago!) theme was 'My State'. This could be interpreted as either the state in Australia in which you live, or a state of mind or feeling, like a state of tidiness, colour, busyness etc. The only requirements for this competition were that the quilt be a portrait orientation and no bigger than 100 by 50cm in size.

I chose to use my state of Western Australia as my inspiration and this image as the basis of my quilt:

Pink and white everlastings grow wildly in WA. We have tried many times to grow them in our own backyard, but are yet to have success.

I started my quilt with some curved piecing using two blue fabrics. I then attached the green 'hills'. The everlasting 'stems' came next; these were strips of green fabrics appliqued on to the 'hills'. I left the edges of these strips unfinished (raw), to add texture.

Then came the everlasting flowers. I made a lot of pink yo-yos in varying sizes and shades and sewed them onto the stems. I sewed a yellow button in the middle as the pollen.

The quilt top was spray basted, and two lines of quilting were added to the sky. I also tied the three layers together using cotton embroidery thread.

The quilt was bundled up with the entry form and taken to the post office to be posted express post to Sydney (the quilt was tracked the whole way with fingers crossed that it would arrive before the deadline. It did!).

And there we have it - a finished quilt!

Time passed, Lily's entry (another post coming soon on hers!) was sent back to us in the mail. But mine was nowhere to be seen. Then we received an email from Universal Magazines.

My quilt was awarded third place in the K-6 category!

For any Quilter's Companion subscribers, my quilt can be viewed on page 16 of issue #79 (May/June 2016).

Oh wow, Zoe, your quilt is beautiful. Congratulations! How exciting to see your amazing quilt published; that is very special. I would love to see many more of your clever imaginings.....you will have to post some more.

Hi Zoe, I am so thrilled for you! What an achievement and to be "in print" too! Congratulations on persevering with entries and I guess you wont be 35 for a trillion more years . . so we will have the pleasure of seeing you grow with your creativity for a long while yet! I bought that magazine last year and am sorry I didnt email your Mum then...I sent it to a friend overseas. So thankyou for reminding me of your beautiful entry! xx

Wow!! That is such a gorgeous quilt!! Really clever and beautiful. How special to be in Quilters Companion too! I hope you're planning your next years quilt. My advice about award winning quilts is simply to make quilts you love, that way it doesn't matter if they win awards or not.